The present invention relates to a copier, facsimile transceiver, printer or similar image recorder and, more particularly, to an image recorder having a paper bundling device which belongs to a family of paper finishers.
A copier or similar image recorder, especially one which is required to operate at high speed, often has a finisher for sorting, binding or otherwise finishing paper sheets undergone recording operations to enhance rapid handling of a great amount of such paper sheets. For example, an image recorder with a sorter for sorting paper sheets copy by copy is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 121456/1986. An image recorder with a stapler for stapling paper sheets copy by copy is taught in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 186278/1987 and 032471/1987. Recently, even an image recorder with a pasting device for pasting part of paper sheets or with a device for inserting extra paper sheets has been proposed.
However, an image recorder with a sorter cannot fasten paper sheets although it is capable of sorting them. An image recorder with a stapler is disadvantageous in that the number of paper sheets which can be stapled together is only a hundred or so, and in that staples used to bind them render the resultant stack bulky and, therefore, uneasy to handle or store. Further, the problem with an image recorder with a pasting device is that pasted paper sheets cannot be loosened afterwards and are, therefore, difficult to copy.